“I shall certainly do my best to see that she is not harmed. And now I must go.”
She smiled at me, nodding slowly.
“I’ll be on the watch,” she said. “No one’s going to drive me away. They daren’t. I’ve told them so. Neither Nap—and he’d be glad to see me go—nor Amy Lincroft. I’ve told them both and they know I mean it.”
“Good day,” I said firmly and walked toward the lych-gate and the road.
That evening I saw the light again. Alice had come to my room to bring me the first of the pillowcases she had been embroidering.
“I wanted to see whether you like this kind of flower. It’s pansies. Pansies are for thoughts, they say. But you could have another flower. I wonder whether it would be nice to have all your pillowcases with different flowers.”
“Why, Alice,” I said, “you’ve worked it beautifully.”
She smiled with pleasure. “I’m so glad you like it, Mrs. Verlaine. You’ve been so kind to me and to Mamma. Mamma was only saying the other day how glad she was that you had come here.”
“And you,” I said, “saved my life. That’s something one never forgets, Alice.”
She turned pink and replied: “But I just happened to be there. It would have been the same with anyone who had been on the spot. They would have done the same.”
“It was very brave to go into a burning house.”
“I didn’t think of it. I only thought that you were in there and how awful it would be…But my mother says we shouldn’t talk of it. It’s better for you not to think of it…if you can help it. Allegra’s pillowcase is coming along very nicely now. She does try, you know—but I think sometimes she feels she has to be naughty. It’s on account of her unfortunate birth. Mine was unfortunate, too, in a way. It would have been so much more respectable of Mamma and Sir William to have waited…and then married. But you see, he never married her. It was because she gave in first, but you mustn’t think badly of her for that. It was because she loved him. May I sit in your window seat? I love window seats. There are lots in this house. What a lovely view you have across the copse.”
“Yes, it is a beautiful view. I have to be grateful to your mother for…giving me this room.”
“All the rooms are beautiful but naturally Mamma would want you to have one of the best. Poor Sylvia! I do hope she is better. She looked ill when we saw her. She could hardly speak to us and the doctor says she’s to have at least three days in bed. I’m going to collect some books to take over for her tomorrow.”
“Does she enjoy reading?” I asked dubiously.
“No. But that’s all the more reason I should take her books, isn’t it? Then she will learn to like it and improve her mind.” Alice caught her breath. I took a step to the window and saw the light flash.
“There!” she cried. “It’s there again.” She stood up. “Would you like to come to my room, Mrs. Verlaine?”
“No thank you, Alice,” I said.
She nodded gravely and went to the door.
“I’m glad you saw it tonight,” she said, “because I believe you thought it was Sylvia doing it. And now you know she’s in bed…so it couldn’t be her, could it?”
I said: “It’s someone on the road somewhere.”
“But the road doesn’t…” She paused and smiled at me a little sadly. “I want to go up to see if it flashes again. I always think I may see something else.”
“Then you go,” I said; and she went.
As soon as she had gone I put on a cloak and went swiftly down the great staircase, through the hall to the gardens.
I might just be in time. It wasn’t Sylvia then, so who was it? Someone who wanted to keep the legend of the ghost alive and so the story of the unfortunate shooting accident. Someone who was hoping to drive Napier away.
The ground was a little spongy underfoot on account of the recent rain and when I reached the copse the grass was very wet My footsteps made a squelching sound which I feared would betray me. The important thing was speed. I must reach the ruin before whoever was haunting it had time to disappear.
There was no moon but the sky was clear of cloud and there was enough starlight to show me the way. I confess to a sudden panic as I caught sight of the gray bricks of the chapel.
I hurried on wishing I had changed my footwear for I was only wearing house shoes and I could already feel the damp seeping through them. I put out a hand to touch the wall and with my heart leaping uncomfortably went inside the ruin. It was a little darker than outside for some of the roof remained, but glancing up I could see a patch of starlight, which was comforting.
There was nothing there. No sign of anyone.
“Who’s there?” I whispered.
No answer. But had I heard a faint sound which could be that of feet on wet grass?
I felt a great urge to get outside, to escape from those walls, and as I stepped out and looked up at the sky I was suddenly caught from behind and held firmly in a vise-like grip.
I had not been so terrified since my adventure in the cottage and I immediately thought what a fool I had been to come. I had been warned—as both the gypsy and Sybil Stacy had pointed out to me. I could not expect to be so fortunate again.
“Well,” said a voice, “you always wanted to meet the ghost of Beaumont Stacy.”
“Napier!” I gasped, and tried to wriggle free but he would not release me.
“You came here to meet Beaumont, didn’t you?” He let me go but as I turned he caught me by the shoulders.
“What are you doing here?”
“You terrified me.”
“You haven’t by any chance been displaying lights?”
“I came to see who was.”
“Good God, haven’t you learned your lesson?”
“My lesson.”
He looked at me quizzically; and I thought of his bringing the spade into the stables, of his meeting me here in the copse when he discovered that I was looking for a grave. And shortly afterwards I had been trapped in the cottage—and he was asking me if I had not learned my lesson! And I was here in the copse with him. It was dark and no one knew I had come.
I heard myself stammer: “I…I saw the light. I was with Alice. I said I would come and investigate…”
“All alone?” His voice mocked me. “You are a very brave woman. Only recently…” His voice sounded suddenly harsh; his grip tightened on my shoulders. “You were up there…and couldn’t get down. For God’s sake, take care.”
“It is the sort of thing which happens once in a lifetime.”
“Some people are accident prone.”
“You mean without a reason?”
“Perhaps the reason is an unseen one.”
“This sounds very mysterious.” I was recovering after that terrible fear. I could not help it but when I was in his presence I could feel elation which banished all my fear. I said: “Did you come down here to discover the source of the light?”
“Yes,” he said.
“And found nothing?”
“The ‘ghost’ was too quick for me. Every time I am too late.”
“And have you a suspicion as to who it might be?”
“Only that it is someone who is trying to drive me away.”
“How could they?”
“By making things so uncomfortable here that I preferred to be elsewhere.”
“I should scarcely have thought you were the sort of man to be driven away because you were uncomfortable.”
“You’re right. All the same it revives the old story. It keeps it alive in my father’s mind. He could be the one to decide that I went away. He was before. I’m not really very popular here, Mrs. Verlaine.”